Well, my car was 23 years old Saturday, ran it's first 10's and won it's owner $10 for matching 60' times at 1.55 and we kicked the snot out of the Ford's. It was a great day that might not have happened for me.
I bought bigger injectors about three weeks ago and got those installed then headed to the track figuring my first 10 second run was in the bag. Not so. It wouldn't 60' so Dick Walker and Scott Hetzel became both coaches and cheerleaders as we tried to break the 11 barrier in air you could drink. Pushed the car to limit at the line and got a 11.006 with a 1.634 60' on what should have been a great launch and ran out of time. Went home and studied the hell out of the PL files and had others look them over and finally discovered that I was sitting too far back and was backing off the pedal when the car launched. Head back the following Friday, the 8th, and just know it's going to get into the 10's for sure. First pass was checkout time and ran fair but everything was set so went to the max on launch, 4400 RPM and 22#'s of boost, and took off, kinda. No 10 and a 1.750 60' so it was definitely time for a new convertor. Had been looking at a PTC 9.5 nl for about a year and I emailed Dusty Bradford Saturday evening and told him I was in a box and needed a new PTC convertor so I could help whip up on some Ford's the next weekend. He responded and asked if I would call on Sunday around 2. I did and on Monday morning he called me back to get specs and arrange shipping. Convertor arrived Thursday morning as promised and it was installed Thursday afternoon by my good friend and semi-adopted mechanic, Tracy Hooper. I went home and crashed as I had developed a bad sinus infection and was beginning to doubt that I would be able to drive Saturday but I knew Tracy could just in case. Got me a shot and some good drugs and stayed inside all day Friday. Woke up Saturday feeling "okay" and headed to Noble and slowly got the slicks on. The first run was 10.98 with a wish and a prayer tune. Played it safe and took that run and tweaked it a little for the race and ran 10.94 @ 122.98. Conservative tune and leaving about 80-100 RWHP on the table so it still has a lot left in it.
Special thanks to Dick and Scott for the coaching and encouragement and to Tracy for dropping what he was doing to get the convertor installed.
I can't say enough about Dusty Bradford. Complete stranger contacts him on the weekend and asks him to do the near impossible and he gets it done and I can tell you that his convertor works great. After my first pass, I started asking myself why I hadn't I owned one of these for years?
Thanks to Steve Wood and Brian Bissonette for putting up with me for the past few months. Steve said Lawrence Connelly told him 20 years ago if you want to go fast, get a NL convertor.
Phil Engle
